Crossing by Mark Slouka: Rebuilding Relationships

Broken relationships, trust, joy, fear – these are all aspects of life that everyone can relate to in some shape or form. They are all emotions we all have to deal with at some point in life.

In the short story “Crossing”, written by Mark Slouka in 2009, that is just what two characters are dealing with. A trip is supposed to be filled with joy, but an event at the river gets in the way of rebuilding the trust and relationship between a father and a son. Is the risk of trusting too big, if it is about life or death? Once trust is broken, is it too difficult to rebuild? The main character is a man in his late twenties, maybe in his early thirties as he has been married, divorced and has a young son. He is a man filled with hope and regrets. His divorce is not directly written, but indicated subtly by the narrator drawing attention to “…the azaleas he’d planted”. This suggests that he once lived there, but now enters with his head ducked down as if he were a visitor. As he is picking up his son at the house that morning, he gets a feeling of hope. A hope that maybe he will be able to make all of this right again. He comes to the conclusion that to fix their relationship, he must take notes from his relationship with his own father, which meant a trip out in the wild would be the best way to bond. When they end up in the extremely dangerous position of being trapped in the river, his thoughts ponders to the guilt he is feeling “My God, all his other fuckups were just preparations for this”. That hints that he was the reason why his marriage had to end, and he is aware of that. His thought throughout the short story play an important role, as his nervousness and anxiousness affect the mood of the telling.

We are guided by the father’s thoughts in spite of the fact that it is not told by a first person narrator, but instead by a third person narrator. This leaves the reader with a limited knowledge in regards to the situations, and the narrator well aware of what is going to happen. We are left sharing the anxious feeling and suspense of the protagonist, when small hints are given, but something is yet to happen. The writing is overwhelmed with imagery, giving the reader the ability to create a visual in their mind.